So, my SO is very sweet and was planning on saving/spending quite a bit of money on an engagement ring (aiming for a nearly 8k one I had tried on once in a store BEFORE seeing the price!), but I think the money is better spent towards our future home, so I, with my SO’s support, have been looking at diamond alternatives and have found that I like Morganite and clear sapphires more than I ever expected to! They’re beautiful!

The problem is that while reading the Bee’s boards, it keeps coming up that morganite is quite soft and not a really good “forever” stone. So I don’t know what to do! I have briefly looked at peach sapphires online as well (not yet in person) but they seem to be a fair amount more expensive than morganite and even clear sapphires, which defeats the purpose, as well as a little harder to find.

@AlexiaMichelle: Peach sapphire was my vote. It’s harder than morganite so might hold up better in the long run. I don’t have experience with morganite but I wear a ruby and/or sapphire everyday (for going on 8 years) with no problems 🙂

I also voted for peach sapphire. While I believe a morganite would hold up fairly well, I feel as if sapphire would be a safer bet for a forever stone. The cost may seem higher upfront, but compared to morganite, your chances of needing to replace the stone would be slimmer.

I suggest that you keep looking for a less expensive peach sapphire. I quickly price checked them on Etsy, and I was surprised by how much the vendors wanted for a loose one. However, I have a feeling that since peach/champagne stones are in vogue now, that higher demand has pushed up the prices. Don’t give up – today, I won a quite large sapphire on eBay for just under $100 shipped. (Granted, it was a green sapphire, and they seem to be less popular than the peach varieties, but still). 🙂

I got a morganite about a week ago, i love it more than anything…ive been constantly inspecting it but no damage… I used to have an aquamarine ring that i wore every day for 2 years and it never got damaged, its the same as a morganite on the MOHS scale..everyone finds my morganite unique cause many have never even heard of it before

oohh one more thing, morganite comes in different shades, yes it comes in peach but it also comes in pink..like this: (mines the pink colour) so make sure you look closely at photos if your buying online

They’re much harder (second hardest next time diamond, less likely to get cracked), they won’t get greasy/dirty as quickly as a morganite would, and they have a lot more sparkle (I compared a morganite vs. my sapphire… the sapphire won for sparkle). I think the sapphire is worth the money, in my opinion, and it’s not where NEAR as much as a diamond would be.

@AlexiaMichelle: One jewler I met said that sapphire’s were the hardest stone after diamonds. I’m not sure if that’s 100% correct but she’s pretty reputable. But I have a sapphire myself & I love it. What I do know is that while sapphires are less expensive than diamonds, they aren’t neccesarily cheap, especially high quality ones & popular colors. Obviously the peach is very popular 🙂 I voted for that too!!

Are you concerned about the strength of the stone because of working with your hands a lot? I have a job where I need to use my hands a lot & sometimes with scratchy or heavy equipment & sapphire was recommended to me quite a bit when I said I didn’t want a diamond. They also said that other stones were fine for people who didn’t do a lot of that kind of work. So if you don’t do that much in that way, I’d say you’d be fine with whichever one you love the most! Good luck!!

@Amayansong: I do office work, but I also tend to be pretty clumsy. I accidently knock my RHR that my SO got me for my birthday last year pretty regularly. It’s a seduction topaz, and so far it’s holding up well even with my klutziness. No idea where topaz is on the scale.I haven’t figured out how to resize yet, sorry!

Edit: I checked and topaz is an 8, so Morganite is just barely below that. Maybe it would survive? But I don’t wear this everyday either so I don’t know how well it would be holding up if I did…

Peach sapphire! White sapphires, although beautiful, are sometmes called “dead stones” because they have very little sparkle. I had an emerald cut white sapphire that I loved but it didn’t look “sparkly” enough to be an engagement ring (in my opinion, some people have them and love them!). I had to really keep it clean in order for it to show any sparkle at all. Peach/champagne sapphires are gorgeous and more sparkly IMO than white sapphires! Morganite I absolutely adore but I’ve heard they can bleach out over time and are fairly soft, so they might not be suitable for every day wear.

I have a morganite! I tossed up between peaxh sapphire and Morg for days. I also tried really hard to look online for pics of damaged morgs but wouldn’t find one! mine is super sparkly and the stone has such a lovely meaning. being the stone of devine love. if it was to chip or scratch a few year. Down the track I have decided that I would replace it with peach sapphire. The colour combo of rose gold with morganite is amazing imo

I voted morganite because I have one too! I LOVE my morganite and constantly get compliments. I’m a huge klutz and have banged my ring on a million of different surfaces. I’m also in healthcare and work with my hands constantly. My morganite has held up perfectly. I was also concerned about it being a “soft” stone… but when I did a lot of research on gemologist websites, the overwhelming evidence that I found was that morganite is plenty hard to wear on a daily basis. It is not as hard as diamond, true, but it is absolutely wearable on a day-to-day basis.